File:Phaeton alarm'd RMG F8650.tiff
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Captions
Captions
Summary
[edit]| Author |
James Gillray |
| Description |
English: Phaeton alarm'dThis hand-coloured etching is a fine and striking example of Gillray’s use of astronomical imagery to comment on the politics of the day. Since comets and meteors were symbols of change, they lent themselves very well to commentary on events in the Georgian age.
George Canning, newly appointed Foreign Secretary, appears as Phaeton riding in his chariot across the heavens, pulled by horses with the faces of fellow cabinet ministers. Canning is shown attacked by the Opposition, who appear as constellations and signs of the zodiac. These include Lord Grenville as Scorpio Broad-Bottom with his claws bearing the heads of Grenville’s nephew, Temple, Lord Spencer; the Duke of Bedford, Lord Moira, and Tierney. His bottom forms a glowing ring, containing a chalice with the Host, surrounded by the heads of assorted Whigs. Lord Howick is a fire-breathing python. Gillray suggests that, like Phaeton cast down by Zeus, Canning is losing control of the chariot, whose wheels crush the scales of justice. Gillray may also have hoped to subtly suggest to his patron, Canning, that his campaign against the Danish navy (the crushed scale is labelled ‘Copenhagen’) fuelled attacks by the Opposition and contributed to the devastation on the earth below, dominated by Napoleon riding a Russian bear. Fox appears as Pluto in the lower right corner, while in the lower left, the ghost of Pitt, in the guise of Apollo, weeps as he sees his son Phaeton under attack. |
| Date | 22 March 1808 |
| Dimensions | Image: 342 mm x 377 mm |
| Source/Photographer | http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/460865 |
| Permission (Reusing this file) |
The original artefact or artwork has been assessed as public domain by age, and faithful reproductions of the two dimensional work are also public domain. No permission is required for reuse for any purpose. The text of this image record has been derived from the Royal Museums Greenwich catalogue and image metadata. Individual data and facts such as date, author and title are not copyrightable, but reuse of longer descriptive text from the catalogue may not be considered fair use. Reuse of the text must be attributed to the "National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London" and a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 license may apply if not rewritten. Refer to Royal Museums Greenwich copyright. |
| Identifier | id number: ZBA4570 |
| Collection | Fine art |
Licensing
[edit]|
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain".
This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details. | ||||
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| Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| current | 17:20, 2 September 2017 |  | 6,120 × 5,412 (94.76 MB) | Fæ (talk | contribs) | Royal Museums Greenwich Fine art, http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/460865 |
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